Black Rain

Apr 19, 2011 Mariel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: peninsulas

Recommended to Mariel by: islands (oookay, it was amazon!)

Sick birds hide their illnesses from other birds as well as from predators. The people in Black Rain with radiation sickness in Hiroshima might have taken their cue from birds... I couldn't help but think of birds as I read about how the mutual horror turned into a bring out your dead collective mistrust and disgust. It occured to me that the suspicion and paranoia were acting to shove them out as if they were already dead. The mushroom cloud Alice ate turned everything bigger and littler and no...more

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Mar 24, 2011 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: translation, japan, fiction, 20-ce, ww-ii

A sensitive handling of numerous eyewitness accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima served up in novel format. The story starts one year after the bombing with the main character, Shigematsu, pondering the future of his niece Yasuko's marriage prospects. There is a persistent rumor that Yasuko was in Hiroshima City on the day of the bombing and now suffers from radiation sickness. Shigematsu, frustrated, as a means of correcting the inaccuracy, suggests a perusal of Yasuko's diary for Aug. 6...more A sensitive handling of numerous eyewitness accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima served up in novel format. The story starts one year after the bombing with the main character, Shigematsu, pondering the future of his niece Yasuko's marriage prospects. There is a persistent rumor that Yasuko was in Hiroshima City on the day of the bombing and now suffers from radiation sickness. Shigematsu, frustrated, as a means of correcting the inaccuracy, suggests a perusal of Yasuko's diary for Aug. 6, 1945--the day of the bombing--and the days thereafter. It is through this device that the story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima is told.

The suffering of the people is simply unfathomable. The bean counter's trade is opprobrious here, but what other measure shall we use? The number killed varies but a mid-range estimate is well over 100,000 within 24 hours of the air raid. That does not include those who suffered with radiation sickness for years afterward. One simply cannot gets one's mind around such suffering. Naked blackened figures face down in the street, literally melted into the asphalt. (This is an image I'm convinced Cormac McCarthy borrowed for The Road.) The walking wounded with great sheaths of black skin hanging on them; the suppurating lice-riddled bedsores; the dead piled up like cord wood.

At one point author Ibuse writes "In olden times, people used to say that in an area badly ravaged by war it took a century to repair the moral damage done to the inhabitants...." The correctness of this statement stings the brain. There is no plot since there was no plot to the bombing as it affected those on the ground. There is a shifting from the relatively orderly present of a year after the bombing, to the recollected past which is all confusion, mass death, cremation pyres all up and down the river shore, and the poor citizens of Hiroshima not understanding what has hit them. Repeatedly the survivors return to the blast zone (a true Ground Zero) without understanding how such exposure is harming them. One can see why the Americans said nothing in the aftermath, negotiating the end of hostilities as they were, but the cold discipline of doing that! (less)

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Aug 22, 2011 Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars

Black Rain is Masuji Ibuse's classic novel about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the ensuing nuclear fallout. Regarded as one of the best novels ever written about the bombing, Black Rain deals with the tragedy with a delicate frankness.

The story's main characters are Shigematsu Shizuma (a manager at a clothing manufacturing plant), his niece Yasuko, and wife Shigeko. Ibuse employs the method of a "story within a story" to describe the events of the day of and immediately following the bomb...more Black Rain is Masuji Ibuse's classic novel about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the ensuing nuclear fallout. Regarded as one of the best novels ever written about the bombing, Black Rain deals with the tragedy with a delicate frankness.

The story's main characters are Shigematsu Shizuma (a manager at a clothing manufacturing plant), his niece Yasuko, and wife Shigeko. Ibuse employs the method of a "story within a story" to describe the events of the day of and immediately following the bombing, while also revealing the longer-term effects. The novel begins in the present day, approximately 2-3 years after the bombing. Shigamatsu, who was in Hiroshima during the bombing, suffers from a mild case of radiation sickness several years after the bomb. He lives a simple life in small village outside Hiroshima, where he takes his doctor's advice to take it easy, rest often, and and eat well in order to combat the sickness. Of chief concern for Shigamatsu and his wife is helping their young niece, Yasuko, marry well. Unfortunately, rumors that Yasuko suffers from radiation sickness have consistently prevented her from making a good match.

Within the main story, Ibuse includes excerpts from several different characters' diaries. He uses this device to describe in detail the events in Hiroshima between August 6, 1945 (the day of the bombing) and August 15 (the day Japan surrendered to the Allied forces). Shigamatsu is in Hiroshima when the bomb falls, and Ibuse's descriptions of the destruction and human suffering he encounters as Shigamatsu makes his way through the city are harrowing. The author conveys the confusion that citizens must have felt as they wondered what had happened, and then tried to assess the damage to themselves, others, and their property. With no way to communicate across distances, Shigamatsu is at once trying to comprehend the disaster and search for his family in the city. They are eventually reunited, and what follows is a story that reveals not only the horror of the first few days, but the long-term effects the day has on their family.

Through the lens of the Shizuma family, Ibuse reveals the profound physical, psychological, and spiritual impact the Hiroshima bombing had upon the city's population. He not only chronicales the enormous death toll at the outset, but the suffering that then ensued for years afterwards. He is direct and compassionate in his storytelling, both acknowledging with frankness the atrocity of the bombing and creating wholly believeable characters with whom we can empathize. Black Rain is a must read for those interested in Japanese history or World War II. (less)

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Aug 12, 2011 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-books-in-2011

An incredible book that humanizes the unthinkable, dropping the atomic bomb on the civilian population of a city [Hiroshima].

It is my perception that Japanese authors often have a special gift for the final sentence or paragraph of a book. In the short story A Portrait of Shunkin by Junchiro Tanizaki the last paragraph is a killer, one of the best I have ever read. Now in Black Rain Ibuse closes like this:

(view spoiler)...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, history, japanese, my-must-reads, 20th-century

We are fortunate that the early half of the Twentieth Century gave us small glimpses of Hell... We have no excuses... We know the horror.
Black Rain is supposed to be a work of fiction but I find that hard to believe - there are too many things that scream out that this is a first-hand experience, that the things we read about were actually seen: blobs of melted lead on sticky tarmac; corpses lying charred on the road; victims walking through dense smoke, ruined shadowy shapes, stumbling over cha...more We are fortunate that the early half of the Twentieth Century gave us small glimpses of Hell... We have no excuses... We know the horror.
Black Rain is supposed to be a work of fiction but I find that hard to believe - there are too many things that scream out that this is a first-hand experience, that the things we read about were actually seen: blobs of melted lead on sticky tarmac; corpses lying charred on the road; victims walking through dense smoke, ruined shadowy shapes, stumbling over charred bodies, dazed, horribly injured, flesh peeled away and flapping. Scenes one could not imagine were it not for that nightmare reality; bodies washed up on the riverbank, a babe tries to suckle at the breast of a partly-burnt corpse... These are images that have entered our communal imagination... images of the end.
Back in the very late 60s and very early 70s I read two books that left indelible scars on my vision of the world; John Hersey's "Hiroshima", with its haunting visions of the nightmare, and Robert Jay Lifton's "Death in Life". One dealing with the event itself and the other with the way the hibakusha (the "bomb-blast people") survived - their experience, their feelings of shame, of guilt at having survived, their apathy and their fear of radiation sickness.
"Black Rain" joins that pair as a work of great power, horror and beauty. It interweaves the ordinary lives of farming people with that extraordinary event, the bombing of Hiroshima. Its characters talk to us directly through their diaries, face-to-face in what could easily be a haunting conversation after a meal - a conversation in which you have been stunned into silence, listening, jaw dropping. I have talked with survivors of Auschwitz, of the Warsaw Uprising, of slave labour... I recognise that immediacy of the eyes staring off into the past, seeing the events for real, painting a picture in your head that will never go away.
In the introduction we are told that the novel draws on actual records and interviews, that the lead character, Shigematsu Shizuma and his diary actually exist but, both in that introduction and, coincidentally, in Lifton (where there is an appendix) the novel is analysed as a work of fiction. I suppose my failure to believe that it is a construct is homage to the book's power.
Scenes from "Inferno" imagined by Dante (who often fell back on his own memories to describe horror and the nightmare) reoccur here...
"...Whenever there was a strong gust of wind, the smoke would thin out and the street would appear, with dim human forms moving here and there on it. At one moment, we would be able to see far into the distance; at the next, we would be enveloped in smoke... Whenever the smoke completely enveloped us, it was too dangerous to go ahead. To blunder into red-hot cinders lying on the ground would mean getting badly burned... Once, Yasuko stumbled... When the smoke cleared again, we found that the obstacle was a corpse clasping a dead baby in its arms..."
There is a beauty here that is difficult to tie down. It's about ordinary people trying to survive. Survivors suffer, endure, fall ill, even die. Survivors wander purposely yet strangely without purpose; they're simply surviving.
The Japanese have an aesthetic sense that can appear amazingly contradictory when looking at their violent history; beauty, simple in its natural elegance, goes hand-in-hand with brutal death and a rigid social structure. This is reflected in the novel; beauty and death and social order.
That's what really stands out as I think back; a calmness among all the horror. Once again, it reminds me of Dante, of the dead stood by the banks of the Acheron (of the transports as they reach Auschwitz, hands reaching out through the windows and the wire) eagerly awaiting the ferryman, eager to cross over...
There are those who condemn the dropping of the bomb... Japan was, after all, a defeated power was she not? Not so. The book reveals the determination, even within the vacuum of Hiroshima, with that gloopy roiling mushroom cloud expanding overhead, that surrender did not enter the mind. It is always about survival, of the individual as part of the nation...
However much we may condemn what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki we should also be thankful, surely.... if not for them would we ever have survived the brinkmanship of the second half of the Twentieth Century?(less)

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Nov 01, 2010 Katie Wilkie added it

Ibuse was born and raised in Japan, and lived in Hiroshima, however was not present in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. His novel is based off of journals from victims and survivors of the bomb and he is very straight forward about presenting the gruesome facts of the entire event. It is interesting that with all the graphic wartime descriptions, Ibuse actually doesn't take a side in the "who was at fault" debate. He doesn't say the Americans were in the wrong or the Chinese military leader...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Lis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japan, read-2012

Masuji Ibuse's novel of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima is structured around accounts written or reported by survivors of the attack. I was struck by its' very ordinariness, just people getting on with their lives in the best way they could and dealing, however they could, with the chaos surrounding them. It is not sensational, gruesome or graphic in a way intended to startle or scare. The writing is not very political or emotional, it just is. I wondered how I would behave in the situ...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reading, favorites

Black Rain is set several years after WWII and is told through the main narrator Shigematsu Shizuma as he and a small group of local survivors, including his family, struggle with the stigma and mysterious symptoms of radiation sickness. Which the only cure seems to be that of the common cold and a lot rest; it's that last part that seems to be so upsetting to Japanese sensibility. The narrative revolves around Shigematsu Shizuma’s niece, Yasuko, who is not yet married, and rumors that she was h...more Black Rain is set several years after WWII and is told through the main narrator Shigematsu Shizuma as he and a small group of local survivors, including his family, struggle with the stigma and mysterious symptoms of radiation sickness. Which the only cure seems to be that of the common cold and a lot rest; it's that last part that seems to be so upsetting to Japanese sensibility. The narrative revolves around Shigematsu Shizuma’s niece, Yasuko, who is not yet married, and rumors that she was hit by poisonous black rain after the Hiroshima bombing, and is now suffering from radiation sickness, lower her chances of finding someone. When someone makes inquires about her, her uncle decides to copy his diary of the days after the bombing so that he can set the record straight about what the family went through and to preserve a first hand account of the immediate aftermath for a local school.

The real power of this narrative comes from narrow focus of these one family as they struggle through the immediate aftermath and fallout. Black Rain is not about the political or social implications of nuclear warfare. Rather, it’s about its everyday consequences and impacts of war on the lives of those who lived it. Through the diary entries we get a clear picture of the hardships rationing, the stress of air raids or the lack of air raids, the complications of black market dealings, and the bureaucracy of life under army rule. Then there was the flash that changed it all for the people of Hiroshima. The Diary entries detail the bombing from several perspectives, describing the deaths and injuries of the victims in all their gory detail. Some of descriptions are extremely disturbing. But what really stands out is the chaos and confusion that prevails the situation throughout the first week. Victims not knowing were to seek safety from the flames; not knowing how to deal with the dead and dieing; the continued frustration of dealing with a never-ending bureaucracy to get help and needed supplies; and finally the surreal reaction to the final surrender. The immense suffering of and udder lack of humanity that saturates the whole situation (I'm including the victims here as well) is enough to cause me to question what the hell is wrong with the species.

Black Rain is a very moving book, written in a very quiet, restrained tone. The lack emotions stands in stark contrast to that of western writers. The casual observations that make up much of the diary entries are what make this fictional biography so disturbing. Anger or self-pity would detract from understanding the totality of this tragedy. Black Rain is one of those books that should be required reading in history class covering the war with Japan. The images from this book will linger in my mind for a long time to come.(less)

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Jan 19, 2012 Evan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nukuler, japonais, warfare, world-war-ii, __in-my-collection, asia, disease-of-the-week, 2012-reads

Reading this novel was, in part, like watching a sports team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For about half the way Masuji Ibuse notched a five-star work on his belt, but, at some point, the author let it all get away from him somewhat--because he seemed less compelled to stick to his powerful, poetic story than to set down for posterity the "novel of record" about the bombing of Hiroshima. Granted, I am somewhat glad he did this, because as a documentary "sights and sounds" kaleidoscopi...more Reading this novel was, in part, like watching a sports team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For about half the way Masuji Ibuse notched a five-star work on his belt, but, at some point, the author let it all get away from him somewhat--because he seemed less compelled to stick to his powerful, poetic story than to set down for posterity the "novel of record" about the bombing of Hiroshima. Granted, I am somewhat glad he did this, because as a documentary "sights and sounds" kaleidoscopic view of events before the bombing on August 6, 1945, and up to the day of Japan's surrender on August 15, it is as fulsome, meticulous and vivid as one could expect. One wonders, then, why Ibuse didn't just write a non-fiction book, since most of the accounts and descriptions of hardship therein seem to have been culled from life, and because the main thrust of his fictional narrative, which compels the readers interest early on, is strayed from almost completely and lost over the course of the book.

The one character who is present throughout the book is a senior factory manager named Shizuma Shigematsu, but increasingly as the story unfolds even he seems less a protoganist than a kind of guide or Greek chorus. The book has an odd structure that places the initial narrative well after the fact of the bombing, then goes back in time to points before, during and after the hellish days of the nuclear holocaust, and then alternates between ominiscient narratives about the characters and first-person diary entries by the protagonists and ancillary characters. The best part of the book is its initial narrative, which begins a couple of years after the bombing and examines the heartbreaking plight of young Yasuko to find a matrimonial partner for herself despite suffering ostracism resulting from her suspected exposure to radiation from the bomb. I found this social exclusion factor an interesting socio-cultural aspect of the Hiroshima tragedy, one not often considered in lieu of all the obvious physical scarring and death that tends to be focused on.

Yasuko, who is under the guardianship of her uncle Shigematsu and aunt Shigeko, shows no physical signs initially to her exposure to the "black rain," the dark, dusty radioactive precipitation that fell on the city in the days following the bombing. Because of this her uncle and aunt decide that fears by her suitors about her exposure are unwarranted, and thus Shigematsu sets out to create a diary written by himself, Yasuko, and Shigeko to help prove that the young lady--in contrast to Shigematsu and others who suffered evident physical maladies from the bombing--is "safe" and marriageable. The diaries soon become the basis for a much more sprawling "Journal of the Bombing" composed by various doctors, soldiers, and other acquaintances who witnessed or suffered from the horrors of the bombing.

Throughout, the novel is infused with unforgettable imagery of gruesome destruction and suffering--and the towering presence of the massive mushroom cloud as it darkens and spreads over the city is haunting and frightening to contemplate. With this image and the scene of chaos unfolding below, it must have been one of the most epochal things in human history to have witnessed. Ibuse gives an incredible sense of it in the early part of the novel. Shigematsu's various journeys around the city, to seek lost loved ones or to procure coal for his factory in the disorder, are told with ample detail and precision. One can smell the burning and rotting corpses.

As a litany of what went on in Hiroshima it's hard to beat, and is certainly an excellent adjunct to John Hersey's classic reportage of that time, Hiroshima. But, after awhile, as the Yasuko narrative thrust and drama are diffused, the book loses its gravitas and begins to feel like a repetitive laundry list.

At times, the back-and-forth narrative time shifts and the inclusion of so many narrative voices begins to detract rather than enlighten; Ibuse loses the power of simplicity. The more he tries to add personalities, the less personal the book feels. And the less the reader begins to feel. The effect is desensitizing.

Nonetheless, this was a powerful and informative book, filled with interesting Japanese socio-cultural attitudes at the time of the war. The book's tone is not angry as much as it is bewildered, and that's to its credit.(less)

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Sep 15, 2011 the air flows rated it 5 of 5 stars

devastating, actually i read this book because one song that have the same tittle from my favorite instrumental rock band: MONO, i'm pretty lucky the book is on my campus library, and i found the relation, it's about the same thing. the mass murder, nuclear bomb. the story is about one man, survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to describe the nuclear fallout from the bombs, which initially occurred in the form of precipitation.
The book alternates between Shizuma Shigematsu...more

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Jun 05, 2009 Amy added it

Oh my. Vivid descriptions of the bombing of Hiroshima. A lot of information about the scarcity of food in wartime, about the resourcefulness of women in managing the household affairs under these conditions. There are some very Japanese concepts of usefulness and the importance placed on work in the attitudes of the town towards those with radiation sickness; thinking to other wartime films, such a concept is seen also in 'Grave of the Fireflies', where the children are unable to be practical an...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Mikel Ruiz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Retrato (gran palabra para empezar cualquier rese?��a) del lanzamiento de la bo,mba sobre Hiroshima visto desde abajo, abarcando los d??as posteriores a trav??s del diario de una pareja y la sobrina que vive con ellos, todos afectados por la radiaci??n. Con momentos realmente duros y cubierto por esa aparente frialdad del estoico estado de ??nimo japones en la que el mayor sufrimiento puede estar contado como quien lava. El ??nico pero puede encontrarse en la extar?��a estructura que avanza a ba...more

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May 21, 2009 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japan

This is a beautiful and harrowing account of the bombing of Hiroshima. Ibuse's overt condemnations of violence are sparing; he lets his relentless catlog of horrors speak for itself. Ibuse's focus on Shigemura and his family focuses and shapes this account of massive suffering as he juxtaposes it with simple daily concerns and hopes. The account of Yasuko's failed marriage plans brings home the tragedy of lives deprived of fundamental hopes and expectations. The book also includes an understated...more

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Dec 18, 2009 Jon Forisha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Extremely literary in the way it was written, even though this book was translated, it's clear that Ibuse is a gifted writer. His descriptions are so painfully realistic that I know he knew his subject well - perhaps better than he wished. There's a plethora of information throughout this novel about the bombing of Hiroshima and life in Japan at this time, and while sometimes the descriptions can take the forefront to the plot and the characters, the novel succeeds very well at what it sets out...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Rise rated it 5 of 5 stars

An antiwar novel, Black Rain probes the effects on humans of the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 1945. It is presented as diary entries of a family (husband, wife, niece) describing their escape from the destroyed city and their encounters with the victims of the bomb. The frame of the story is the niece Yasuko being involved in matchmaking for a promising marriage. Having learned that she was possibly exposed to radiation while fleeing Hiroshima, single men who were consi...more An antiwar novel, Black Rain probes the effects on humans of the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 1945. It is presented as diary entries of a family (husband, wife, niece) describing their escape from the destroyed city and their encounters with the victims of the bomb. The frame of the story is the niece Yasuko being involved in matchmaking for a promising marriage. Having learned that she was possibly exposed to radiation while fleeing Hiroshima, single men who were considering Yasuko for a wife eventually started to back out of the negotiations. In order to prove that she is healthy and free of symptoms of radiation sickness, Yasuko's uncle instructed her to copy out her diaries written right after the period of the bombing so that her whereabouts were accounted for during the whole ordeal.

In using the marriage negotiations as the initial impetus for relaying the events of the bombing and in highlighting the way a potential marriage is being threatened by suspicions of radiation disease, Ibuse Masuji's novel thus underscores not only the immediate toll exacted on human lives and health but also the deleterious effects of the bomb on an entire culture and tradition. Sick or not, the survivors from Hiroshima were faced with social discrimination.

The uncle, Shigematsu Shizuma, later finds another reason to copy out the diaries of his family: "This diary of the bombing is my piece of history, to be preserved in school library." The novel becomes the fictional repository of this "Journal of the Bombing" which was based on documents, interviews, and actual diaries of real persons. Documentation of a significant historical event accomplishes Shigematsu's desire to preserve memories for the information and education of future peoples.

The unspeakable nature of the bomb was evident from the harrowing effects it produced. The novel did not shy away from graphically describing some of the destruction. Alongside the horror, Ibuse has infused his characters, details, and setting with such strong and realistic particularities that the novel does not devolve into pure critique and fury. The dry humor, the day-to-day routine of the characters before and after the bomb, the understated despair of the characters, and their bravery and resilience—all of these contributed to a novel of compelling interest. The novel's small, perfectly realized details stand out against the pathos of the larger story.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first large-scale laboratories for the atomic bomb, whose destructive power was clearly unseen before. Its name was not even known at first to the victims. It was always referred to as a "new weapon", and also called, as Shigematsu observed, as "new-type bomb", "secret weapon", "special new-type bomb", "special high-capacity bomb". Whatever its name and whatever justifications for its use were made, it cannot be denied that the man-made bomb is a product of a man-made war. Its harmful effects last for a very long time. It ended the second world war and yet it continues to perpetrate an intergenerational crime—the crime of unleashing unstable radioactive substances which can lead to fatal diseases.

Full review: http://booktrek.blogspot.com/2012/07/...(less)

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Aug 20, 2010 Antigone rated it 4 of 5 stars

An assigned book in highschool English, I went out and re-purchased this one for my library in the last few years. I really appreciated the book when I read it. As a child of the nuclear age, I wondered and cared about the effects of a nuclear holocaust.... mostly because I think I was pretty sure I was going to experience one in my lifetime. This book portrays the life lived by civilian Japanese after the bomb and amazingly does so without interjecting blame. By avoiding deliberations or recrim...more

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May 20, 2011 Maureen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-7b

Historically, this is a very valuable book. As a story, it's only ok. It's mostly first-person accounts of the Hiroshima bombing, tied together with a storyline about a couple who are looking for a husband for their niece. They can't find anyone to marry her because suitors are concerned about radiation sickness. To fight the rumors and prove that his niece is healthy, the uncle writes a diary of the bombing. The descriptions are pretty graphic and the book is uncomfortable to read, but since th...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Orlok rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading-list

This should be mandatory reading for anyone going to war, and particularly for those with their fingers on the button. It is a cautionary tale that reads more like non-fiction than a novel, and whilst it is very bleak in parts, it also manages to relieve that depressing litany of horror with absorbing peeks into the lives of the survivors. One would think that to have lived through something as devastating and life changing as that would make it difficult to function normally any more. Truly lif...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Parrish Lantern rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: j-lit, translation, on-my-shelves, ww1-2, fiction, history

This book started as a serialization in the magazine Shincho (Shinchosha Publishing Co, Ltd) in January 1965. Masuji Ibuse used historical records and the diaries of survivors to reconstruct the experience of the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Black Rain switches between the time & immediate aftermath of the bombing, covering the timeframe August the 6th to the 15th (1945) via the main protagonist, Shigematsu Shizuma’ s diary entries and the present (several years afte...more This book started as a serialization in the magazine Shincho (Shinchosha Publishing Co, Ltd) in January 1965. Masuji Ibuse used historical records and the diaries of survivors to reconstruct the experience of the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Black Rain switches between the time & immediate aftermath of the bombing, covering the timeframe August the 6th to the 15th (1945) via the main protagonist, Shigematsu Shizuma’ s diary entries and the present (several years after).The book opens with Shigematsu’s concerns with his niece, Yasuko and her three failed marriage matches, the reason for which seems to be due to rumours about her health and whether she was exposed to the “Black Rain” fallout from the atomic bomb. In fact Shigematsu compiles a journal with the express aim of proving that she couldn’t have been exposed and thus didn’t have radiation sickness. We soon learn she has.
*
Although the translator John Bester, posits this book firmly within the tradition of the I-Novel (私小説 Shishōsetsu, Watakushi shōsetsu), the narrator is not Masuji Ibuse, but the primary protagonist Shigematsu, through whom we follow a period of his life as though it were laid out for our inspection – Shigematsu’s original reasoning for his journal is to prove his niece hadn’t come into contact with the black rain. By having Shigematsu write out his journal, Ibuse in a clever move, has used the I- Novel tradition to portray a realistic view of the narrator’s world, allowing us to perceive his life during the moment of the blast and the consequences that followed in the days, months and years after. Ibuse also shows us other viewpoints, by weaving them through Shigematsu’s tale, we learn of other survivors, the hibakusha*, whether family members, neighbours or other characters he meets on his journey and via their tales we learn more about this point, this ground zero that will be forever rooted deep in this nations psyche.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.com/20...(less)

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Aug 26, 2011 Frank Maccormack rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel was a bit of a battle for me to get through, though not for the usual reasons. It is well written, the characters are identifiable and worthy of the reader's interest, and the story is relatively well paced. The issue I had concerned the very nature of the story itself: a fictional but fact-based account of the aftermath of an all-too-real event in history. This can cause a sort of "lack of expectation" on the part of the reader, where neither the twists and turns of pure fiction nor...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Faizah Roslaini rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010, history, politics

1 - Ibuse menulis tanpa sentimen, beliau tidak menyuruh pembaca merasa. Sebaliknya, kita akan merasa sendiri dari deskripsi dan gambaran pada hari 6 Ogos tersebut.

2 - Satu demi satu gambaran tentang mayat-mayat boleh menjadikan pembaca akhirnya lali dengan mayat. Mungkin itu perasaan rakyat Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Mayat-mayat bergelimpangan di sana sini dan melihatnya setiap hari, barangkali mereka sudah tidak ada perasaan.

3 - Sayang sekali translasi DBP ini sangat hambar. Amat sedikit sekali yang...more

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Feb 11, 2009 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazing novel. Extremely powerful, very consistent. There were parts that were about "facts", things that i might not normally care, about certain businesses and issues of Hiroshima- the /place/. Or details of lives of many different people. Somehow it made you care about these things.

There was something wonderful about the descriptions of food in this book. I loved how it made things seem as if good eating was very important. "eating lots of nourishing foods" was a quote that appeared a cou...more

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Sep 26, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. black rain by Masuji Ibuse was good. it was about the aftermath of the atomic bombing in hiroshima. it was fiction, but based on the journals of a real man, and i'm sure the author's own experiences of the time. it talked about how people reacted to the bombing, the immediate effects, and the lasting effects years later.

one of the main story lines was that a woman kept getting rejected for marriage because she'd been affected by the radiation and was therefore "damaged" because she might give bi...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

You kind of hate to say you enjoyed a book that emcompasses so much death, destruction, and suffering, but I really enjoyed this one. Even though Ibuse spends a lot of time describing dead and dying people, he does so in a way that is tolerable--his descriptions didn't bother me nearly as much as similar descriptions have, possibly because the does so in such a straight forward way. It's enlightening to experience a very different cultural perspective, and to see why the Japanese people faught s...more

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Sep 23, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

'Black Rain' is centered around the story of a young woman, Yasuko, who was caught in the radioactive 'black rain' that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima. Ibuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet manages to reveal the magnitude of the human suffering caused by the atom bomb.

The story is told by her uncle, Shigematsu Shizuma, with whom she lives.

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Oct 08, 2011 Andrew added it

Shelves: japanese-fiction

A lot of authors have written in harrowing, post-apocalypic tones about harrowing, post-apocalyptic scenarios. What sets Ibuse apart is that he writes about something that really happened.

The bomb is described matter-of-factly, almost nonchalantly. There is no symbolism-- the bomb victims are allowed to stand as human beings. They were there, they lived it, and there's no need for histrionics when a real event possesses that much horror.

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Oct 22, 2010 Luis rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book Black Rain is the story of the refugees that survived in the Hiroshima Bombing. the book is in a diary for of one of the survivors and how they lived in the polluted remains of a once was flourishing city. It is called black rain because these people were stuck in the radioactive aftermath of radioactive rain. The book is about a person named Shigematsu who found a diary of a dead person in a refugee camp of the people that were in the bombing of Hiroshima. Th e diary is about someone...more

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May 15, 2013 Ophelia marked it as to-read

Why Three Stars ?
because it was interesting and new to me
Why It doesn't deserve more ?
Because it was labeled as a " Novel" but when you read it yo'll
find that that author could have made a bigger effort in making it so
It felt like reading non-fiction "not my favourite genre in the world
+ It's very bleak and grim ( duh what did I expect )
+ It's a school assignment
+ I was forcing myself to finish it

Overall , not my cup of tea but if you'd like to read
narratives that are very loosely connected...more

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Feb 15, 2011 James P rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for my Honors 290 class. I thought it has worth, but it wasn't anything special as a book. It did describe the destruction and consequences of the bomb within Hiroshima. It was gross, especially about skin falling off like wet newspaper. I wasn't shocked, though, by the book. I still think America did the right thing on August 6, 1945. It was the first Japanese novel I've read, so definitely of merit.

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Mar 26, 2013 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

March selection for the Stanford Alumni Book Salon--Ibuse wrote this book 24 years after the Allied bombing of Hiroshima. He based his novel on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the blast. The story is told in an amazingly dispassionate manner, perhaps indicative of the Japanese culture, but nevertheless conveys the horror and suffering caused by the atom bomb.

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